Late shows coming back under interim deal

"Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" will be back with their writers airing joke-filled new hours starting Wednesday, the shows' production company, Worldwide Pants, announced Friday.

An interim agreement between the Letterman-owned company and the Writers Guild of America will allow the full writing staffs for both shows to return to work, even as the Hollywood writers strike continues to shutter much TV and movie production.

Both of those CBS late-night shows have been airing reruns since the strike began eight weeks ago.

The deal, which restores the two shows to business as usual, gives them an enormous advantage over their competition. NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" as well as ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" had already announced they would resume Wednesday without benefit of their writing

teams. Similarly, Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert" planned to return writer-less on Monday, Jan. 7.